Every third Monday of the month, the Cloud County Commission hosts a Cloud County Department Head Meeting, bringing in each county department to update commissioners on their activities.
County commissioners Ron Copple, Dannie Kearn and Chairman Mike Cleveland attended the meeting, with the Cloud County Clerk Shella Thoman completing the meeting’s regular roster.
The first county department administrator to present during the meeting was Cloud County Road and Bridge Administrator Rod Michaud, who updated commissioners on the shoulder work the department plans to perform on Noble Road.
Although county staff are content with Noble Road’s new pavement, the new road’s shoulder remains a steep drop-off, which Michaud said his department will fix with some rock fill and attend to the driveway entrances along the county road.
Michaud also presented about his department’s new road grader that includes an extended warranty.
Commercial driver’s license (CDL) training was the next topic, which Michaud reported to commissioners that the county has used Fort Hays Tech North Central as its training location, but Cleveland asked why the department couldn’t use Cloud County Community College’s (CCCC) CDL program instead.
According to Michaud, the department began using Fort Hays Tech before CCCC moved its CDL program to Cloud County. The program used to be housed at the Geary County campus.
Michaud said he would look into switching the training program to CCCC, and his update ended shortly after.
Commissioners and Shella Thoman then went into the Cloud County Courthouse basement to attend the regular department head meeting, which included multiple county department administrators ranging from the Register of Deeds, Jana Roush, to Solid Waste Director Mike Hake.
Hake presented to commissioners first during the department head meeting, where he briefly mentioned a bid for a new skid steer for the Cloud County Transfer Station and that the Recycling Center sold 43,659 pounds of cardboard, or nearly 22 tons.
Roush did not have anything new to report to commissioners, and the meeting moved on to Michaud’s department update.
Michaud recapped what he told the commissioners before the department head meeting, including his plans for Noble Road’s shoulder work and the driveways along the new pavement.
Cloud County Maintenance Manager Jeff Thoman then presented his department’s update to the commission, which began with an overview of recent inspections.
According to Jeff Thoman, the Cloud County Courthouse received two inspections last week, one for fire safety and another for a surprise boiler inspection.
The fire inspection went well, Jeff Thoman said, with Concordia Fire Department inspectors finding only one issue throughout the entire building—one fire exit needed backup batteries for the door alarm, which Jeff Thoman said he’s currently working on.
Jeff Thoman said the boiler inspection went smoothly as well, because the department fixed each issue detailed in the last inspection six months earlier.
One major challenge Jeff Thoman reported was the building’s air conditioning system, where some staff are experiencing cooling issues in their offices as the weather begins to warm.
Maintenance staff have worked for weeks to find the issue in the courthouse’s system, but the problem continues to elude staff.
“We’re working on it, so far, no answers,” Jeff Thoman said.
For now, Jeff Thoman said he plans to install a few window air conditioning units for the warmest rooms.
Cloud County Health Department Administrator Tonya Sulanka presented to commissioners after Jeff Thoman and began her update with a few events that her department attended.
Sulanka detailed the recent Jamestown Bike Rodeo that her staff assisted with on Saturday, May 17, and the next one in Clyde on Saturday, May 31. She also spoke about the Touch-A-Truck event at Broadway Plaza on Saturday, May 17, which she and a few of her staff members attended.
Department audits, the Cloud County Fan Drive and the Crisis Pantry were Sulanka’s next topics. The health department continues its auditing process, with a pause on new Home Health patients due to bookkeeping needs.
While talking about the Crisis Pantry, Sulanka reported that the department applied for and received a grant from the Community Foundation for Cloud County amounting to $3,456. On the topic of donations, Sulanka said some residents gifted some new box fans for the county’s Fan Drive, which provides a free fan for any Cloud County resident during the summertime.
The fans left the department as quickly as they arrived, though, which Sulanka said the department continues to ask the public for donated box fans.
“We did get donated three fans last week, which is great, but they were gone within two days,” Sulanka said. “The weather just got too warm too fast, and our rule is, you get one. If you got one last year, you don’t get one this year. So every two years, you can apply for one of those fans, but we don’t have any right now.”
Staff will only accept newly purchased box fans for the drive, which can be taken to the Cloud County Health Department at 910 West 11th Street in Concordia.
Once Sulanka finished her department update, commissioners moved on to speak with Shella Thoman about the clerk’s office. According to Shella Thoman, the county’s auditors left last Thursday, and she expects to see the county’s audit sooner rather than later, with the auditors planning to make minor adjustments.
According to Shella Thoman, the county still leads the Give Back Kansas Challenge in the large employer category, which is a challenge to local businesses and organizations that tally volunteer hours. The challenge is set to end this week on Friday, May 23.
Shella Thoman then reported that she needs the fellow departments to send her their 2026 budget requests so the county can begin building its budget for next year.
One of the last subjects discussed in the department head meeting was the county’s storage challenges.
According to Jeff Thoman, the county stores a significant amount of plexiglass from the age of COVID-19 restrictions. Commissioners talked positively of selling the plexiglass and instructed Jeff Thoman to research the funding trail of the plexiglass due to grant inventory restrictions.
The department head meeting ended shortly after the plexiglass discussions, and commissioners returned to the Cloud County Commission room on the courthouse’s main floor for the rest of the regular meeting.
Returning before their next appointment, the commissioners decided to discuss routine business matters, beginning with the approval of last week’s meeting minutes, which was unanimous.
Commissioners also unanimously approved the abatements, the reassignment of Paul McGuire for the road and bridge department and documented the commissioners’ meetings and events they attended last week.
The commission then took an executive session at 10:08 a.m. to discuss Cloud County Emergency Manager applications, and returned at 10:23 a.m.
Hake then rejoined the meeting after commissioners finished with routine business, and brought Prairieland Partners Salesman Roger Hardaway, who presented a $62,630 bid for a 2024 John Deere Skid Steer Loader.
Commonly known as skid steers, this tool would be for the solid waste department’s use and includes a 60-month warranty for the equipment.
Hake also brought forward another skid steer bid from Casey Equipment Company, which presented a 2025 Cat Skid Steer for $57,181 with an 85-month warranty.
Another bid from Central Kansas Electric crossed the commissioners’ desk, this time for some electrical work to move the power for the solid waste department’s crawler excavator equipment to a different side of the transfer station’s driveway. The bid totaled $5,133.77.
Commissioners plan to review the bids. They then moved on to discussing the Cloud County Health Department with Sulanka.
She brought forward a new electronic health records (EHR) software that the department would like to use, called MatrixCare, for home health services. According to Sulanka, the department’s current software, Nightingale, requires multiple hours of work for manual record entry, while MatrixCare could perform much of the same work instead.
The change would cost the county significantly more, but less than the county’s current challenges with record-keeping for Medicare reimbursements. MatrixCare’s cost totals around $36,000 per year, significantly more than Nightingale’s $17,000 per year.
Sulanka said the price remains similar due to her staff’s needs for additional software that complements Nightingale, while MatrixCare would replace both services.
Commissioners requested that Sulanka seek a few references for the new software, but responded positively to the new system.
“I’m already convinced,” Cleveland said.
Sulanka provided some further features of the software.
“It has everything—it’ll show you exactly how your patients are doing, and I think that would be a great visualization for you,” Sulanka said. “It shows where your money’s all going to.”
Commissioners recessed into an executive session with Sulanka that lasted until 11:37 a.m. Once they returned to the open meeting, commissioners ended the health department update and moved on to update a bid for the Glasco Meat Locker due to a mathematical error.
Commissioners unanimously agreed to update the bid from $53,987.19 to $55,004.19.
After a few discussions about fund management and wheelchair assistance, commissioners adjourned the meeting at 12:01 p.m.
